1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices having compartments for storing paper money, documents, and other printed matter while retaining personal privacy, and particularly to a frangible card laminated at the edges with a sealed compartment.
2. Description of the Related Art
In modern society, people sometimes have a need for carrying documents or other valuables on their person, or for giving personal documents or valuables to a family member or loved one, while desiring to retain a degree of privacy or security towards the item. A common example relates to persons who have medical conditions requiring specialized treatment in the event of emergency. Such individuals may wish to have a card or other document which they may carry in a wallet, purse or other container which they would normally expect to have on or about their person, but who would prefer to carry the information about in a form in which the information is not open or in plain view. Such individuals may desire information concerning their medical condition to remain private in the event the wallet or purse is lost or mislaid and subsequently inspected by a stranger, or in the event curious or snooping individuals should come into possession of the card.
Another situation which frequently arises concerns parents who send their children away to college. The parent may wish the child to have a card available for emergencies, which may have information such as the name address and telephone of persons to contact in the event of an emergency which incapacitates the child. At the same time, the parent may wish to make a conditional gift of cash to the child for immediate use in an emergency, but retain sufficient control over the money to know whether it has been spent in order to request an accounting of the nature of the emergency. It would be desirable to have a portable, sealable container which may be carried on or about the person conveniently in which both the information card and money might be stored.
Several inventions relate to personal information cards, sealable document containers, and devices for preserving the privacy of documentary information. U.S. Pat. No. 2,408,626, issued Oct. 1, 1946 to L. B. Green, describes a device for dating documents and preserving their authenticity, in the form of an integral folder and cover which may be folded and sealed separately using gummed adhesive tabs along their edges, and a record sheet inserted in the cover portion. The original document and the record sheet are randomly perforated simultaneously to prevent alteration of the original, and the document may be mailed to obtain a postmark. U.S. Pat. No. 2,431,561, issued Nov. 25, 1947 to S. Hyman, shows a folding photo and match bookholder having a secret pocket under the matchbook held closed by a lug or by flaps.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,174,857, issued Nov. 20, 1979 to J. R. Koza, teaches a game or lottery ticket which preserves the privacy and security of the winning information, the ticket having a base sheet with numbers or prizes printed thereon covered by a material which may be rubbed off, and a cover sheet, the sheets being adhered by adhesive around their periphery and having "postage stamp perforations" disposed inside the adhesive along three of the four edges of the sheets. An optional bottom sheet may be used to ensure security of the numbers when they are printed by an impact printer which may leave indentations on the base sheet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,076, issued Jul. 2, 1991 to J. J. Danelski, describes a product having a concealed message, consisting of a sheet of paper, paperboard, cardboard, or the like with ink printing covered by a transparent film layer. Some of the areas are bonded with a heat sealable coating so that the ink comes off with the transparent film, while other areas are bonded with a releasable coating so that the ink does not come off with the transparent film. A hidden message is revealed under the areas where the ink comes off when the transparent film is removed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,380,046, issued Jan. 10, 1995 to G. W. Stephens, discloses a personal information packet having a foldable paper card inserted into a transparent, thermoplastic envelope with exposed printing advising the authorities how to open the envelope. The printing includes a dashed line around the periphery of the envelope which may be cut with scissors. The packet has a hole through it so that a child's shoelace may be inserted through the hole and the packet interlaced in the child's shoe. While the patent does not describe the device as being flexible, the manner of use permits that inference.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,355, issued Jul. 28, 1998 to G. W. Main, shows a single unit phone card including two sheets laminated together, the entire assembly then being laminated with plastic film. United Kingdom Patent No. 2,232,924, published Jan. 2, 1991, teaches a ticket with a voucher attached to the back of the ticket by parallel adhesive strips. The voucher is attached to the adhesive strips by perforations, so the voucher may be torn away from the ticket, permitting advertising and promotional information to be printed on both sides of the voucher.
Containers for information cards which are only sealed on three of their four sides are not calculated to deter the casual, idle curiosity seeker from pulling out the information card if the container should come into his possession. Containers which are sealed, but flexible, offer no protection to the information storage medium from damage by folding, and if made from paper of plastic, pose a risk of damage by accidental tearing of the container, the storage medium, or both. Information cards which are laminated with a rigid, transparent plastic offer no privacy protection for the information. Oversized containers are inconvenient to carry on or about the person. There is a need for a compact, relatively rigid frangible card with a sealed compartment adapted for carrying on the person which affords the bearer some degree of protection from unwanted disclosure of the contents of the compartment.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singularly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus a frangible card with a sealed compartment solving the aforementioned problems is desired.